The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A SCHEDULED maintenance of the radar system at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) has been pushed back to avoid heavy delays during the busy Exuma regatta weekend, aviation officials said yesterday, which was welcome news for airline executives looking to capitalise on the peak period.

Captain Patrick Rolle, the director of Civil Aviation, told Tribune Business: "We are addressing issues with the radar, such as lost of targets and other issues. We had a scheduled maintenance for this week, and we decided not to do it because of the amount of traffic with the local regatta in George Town and the amount of traffic during that period.

We moved it back to the week of the 30th. Starting on April 29, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will start coming in to prepare for the beginning of the operation."

Captain Rolle added: "It's virtually impossible to try to put it off again because all of the technicians are coming in from different regions and, in trying to coordinate that, we are not sure they are going to be available at the same time.

"We did move it away from the week of the regatta to ensure that the management of the traffic would be facilitated. There is no cost to theGovernment. Not only does the radar provide services to the Bahamas but it provides services to en route US traffic heading south and then coming back north, and because we have an agreement with the FAA they are coming in to do the work for us gratis."

Sky Bahamas chief executive, Randy Butler, told Tribune Business of the move: "That's good news for us. It's good that they considered that. I am grateful for them doing that. The forecast for the regatta season looks very good. We usually do really well during this season."

Mr Butler said airline operators had already suffered considerably from delays during peak periods this year due to industrial action. "If they take the system down and go back to the manual system, it slows down the traffic, because when they do it manually they have to do certain separations more than when they have radar. The process is slowed down and the days will be longer for us. There would be delays," he added.